Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.

SPRING FESTIVALS

The spring festival season ín Vietnam starts with the Lunar New Year (Tet) and (1)______ with the celebration honouring the mythical founding fathers, the Hung Kings, on the tenth day of the (2)_____ lunar month.

Underlying the origins of these rituals is the farming cycle and ( 3)_______ association with fertility rites and ancestor worship. Ancestor worship is a (4)_____ of wet-rice farmers who keep their ancestors' graves in their village. This strong attachment to the village of ones birth and the recognition that the (5)______  all descend from the same ancestral line creates strong bonds. The village festival is based (6)_____  the spirit of unity and family. The farmers are the festivals' creators, actors and audience.

Ancient ceremonies (7)______ to farming sometimes take on additional meanings the commemoration of heroic deeds and the village heroes’ (8)______ or death. Each village in the North of Vietnam has (9)_____ a heroic or super-human figure as a tutelary or guardian spirit. The heroes were honoured in their own (10)______  and communal houses which became the heart of the village activities.

This strong attachment to the village of ones birth and the recognition that the (5)______  all descend from the same ancestral line creates strong bonds.